How To Do The Rear Naked Choke In Jiu Jitsu

In this video now I’m going to show you the most ultimate move of all martial arts – the rear naked choke.

It is going to cover the mechanics right now. I want you to sit like this. Put one leg forward and your thigh – right here. I want you to imagine that that’s the bad guy’s neck – thick neck. So, sit like this. What I want you to do is – take your arm and we’re going to go around the bad guys neck – just like that. Go around just like this and grab your own biceps.

One more time – go around here, grab your biceps and take your hand. There are two options here – you could take your hand and just grab your shoulder with it, kind of falls over this hand and then locks on here like this.

That’s one way. Another way to do it – some guys do a little back-fist here on the back of her head. So grab the shoulder from back-fist to back of the head.

So around here, grab here, lay your head down. You don’t want your head bouncing around again. Make sure that when you go around the neck your elbow is not pointing off to the side. You want your elbow to point straight out of the front of neck. Elbow goes in front so that the point of the V is the front of his neck. Around here, grab, grab, lay your head down. That’s the mechanical position of the rear naked choke.

Squeeze Is Key To Rear Naked Choke

The key to making it work is the squeeze – the squeeze is just the way. It’s just the way this whole thing works. There are three things to consider, three sources of squeezer, three sources of power that we have to consider when we do the rear naked choke.

First Step Of The Rear Naked Choke

The first thing is go around like this – you want to just kind of think of this as a dead-lift, the way we pick the weight off the ground. I want you to kind of lift this whole V with your back as you squeeze your arm. So it’s not just a biceps curl. It’s not just a triceps extension either. Some guys do this. It’s not just that; it’s more of a dead lift and squeeze. When you go around your leg, lock this up here. Dead lift here as you squeeze – that’s the first part.

The Second Step Of The Rear Naked Choke

The second thing is – stick your chest out like a bird as you do that. So, I’m gonna dead-lift here and squeeze at the same time. My chest is going to go push a little bit, just a few inches, push on the back of his neck. And it’s hard to see that my leg in that way. So, dead-lift squeeze, chest out, and

Third Step Of The Rear Naked Choke

The third thing is head pushes – his head forward. So, I’m going to have this kind of head pressure, pushing his head forward. When you coordinate all three of those things together you get what I call a 3 second choke or a five second choke. It’s the kind of choke that will pass somebody out in about three to five seconds. All has to be coordinated.

Now if you kind of suck at this, maybe you just kind of do it wrong, this move is so powerful that it will still work. It will just take about seven seconds, ten seconds, whatever to work. Just like this and coordinate – dead-lift, arm squeeze, chest out, head forward – all that kind of synchronized and just presses all at once.

And when you do it right let me show you what happens. I’m going to go around here. Remember elbow, front, not sideways. There’s a couple of points to be trying to put his head down. You can be nice about this and grab his forehead and pull it back. You could be a little meaner about this and take the bone of your hand under the nose and that’s even nastier in a real fight.

So arm in here, elbows in front, I’ve got my position. I want you to coordinate all of three of those pressures – those three sources of pressure at the same time. We don’t go hard. Go nice. And when you do it correctly, if I do correctly, he will tap as soon as I apply that pressure. I’ll go just nice and soft, one two three and done.

Coordination Of Moves Is Important

You see, how as soon as I squeezed, he tapped. And the reason why is because I coordinated all three of these sources of pressure at once. Now, if I do it wrong, it will still work. If you’re a strong guy, it will still work pretty quickly. But no if I just squeeze my arms. So, he may have passed out in about 10 to 15 seconds. But when I do it correctly, he taps right away. I’m using no strength, just pure technique here – chest, arms, dead-lift and head forward all at once, see he taps right away. That kind of choke will pass someone out in just a few seconds. So you just want to make it as good as you can. So coordinate all three of those things together.

Caution!

Now, one word of caution , one word of warning, don’t choke too long. That’s where you get all those troubles with, for example, police departments who are relatively untrained and they choked guys for 30 seconds and he dies – you don’t want that. It doesn’t take that long.

So what I do, when I used this choke in real life, I monitor the guy. It works great. When I’m squeezing I’m just kind of looking here and kind of feeling; you can feel when a guy’s alive and when he goes to sleep. Big difference. And as soon as I feel the bad guy here go limp, I release the pressure. I may still keep this possession just for the sake of control but not squeezing his neck. So, when I hold a guy like this all squeeze, he’ll pass out. I’m just holding it here and not squeezing. It is a way to control him. If you do let go of someone who has passed out you have to be very careful.

Imagine for a second, run up the guy in a fight on the sidewalk and if I were to choke him out and just let him go, his head will smack the ground pretty hard. That’s an impact you don’t want. That’s a lot of legal issues. You better be careful. So what I do is that if I feel like this guy’s passed out and I want to lay him down, pretty simple. Hold his head and lay him down. Be nice and gentle to the bad guy so he doesn’t get hurt. So practice this move. I think really it’s the ultimate move of all martial arts.

Father of eight, Dr. Scott Sullivan is the chief instructor at Bam Bam Martial Arts in Houston, TX. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of St. Thomas and is a seasoned martial arts instructor with over 30 years of experience. A firm believer that martial arts really does help people become more fit, safe, and happy, he remains vigilant about helping people improve their lives through martial arts.

POPULAR CATEGORY

Bam Bam Martial Arts Academy is Houston's premier martial arts program specializing in helping people become the best version of themselves through our unique training program for kids and adults!

If you live in the following areas; Pearland, Bellaire, West U, West University, Sugar Land, Southside Place, Meyerland, Galleria, Midtown, Missouri City, River Oaks, Rice University, Rice Village, the Medical Center, or anywhere in the Medical District you are close enough to come train with us!